In this issue

Nominations for ASRHA Innovation Award and ASHHNA Post Prize

ASHHNA Practise Standards 3rd Edition Available

Networking Opportunities

Events

Training & Education

Membership Payment : PayPal Error

Jobs

Recipe 

Dear ASHHNA Members, 
 
Welcome to the Winter edition of your quarterly newsletter! 
 
In this edition we are fortunate to have many contributions from our exceptional members – thank you very much and please keep them coming, we absolutely love hearing from you! You’ll also find links to nominate yourself or someone deserving for upcoming awards, as well as upcoming events, networking opportunities, jobs and a delicious recipe for you to try! 
 
As always, if you find something of interest, chances are we will too so please get in touch to share what you have found. Additionally, if you have any feedback, comments, or requests get in touch. 
 
Enjoy! 

Look at the above photo. That is a 1:1 scale model of a clitoris. Did you know that the clitoris is about 9cm by 9cm and is wrapped around the urethra and vagina?

Did you know that the clitoris vanished from Grey’s Anatomy textbook in 1948 and really didn’t make a comeback? Did you know that Dr Helen O’Connell, an Australian urologist described the anatomy of the clitoris in 2004 but no one really noticed? If any of that is news to you then you may have a case of UFO – Unreachable Female Orgasm.

Women’s sexual pleasure and the clitoris is the unidentified flying object. It’s missing in most text and reference books for health professionals. Research tells us that sexual dysfunction in women is common. Issues such as low libido, difficulty with orgasm and painful sex are frequent and often just accepted as ‘normal’ and particularly normal for women.

Women’s underwhelming experience of sex tends to be medicalised and biological or pathopsychological reasons are investigated. But what if the answer was health literacy? Acknowledging sexual pleasure as fundamental to the human experience and bringing that into sexuality education and training for everyone seems to be overlooked in Australia.

The funny thing is most of us have not had any formal education in how to deliver this type of health literacy with our clients. One step towards this is explaining anatomy and function and destigmatising genitals and the guilt of pleasure.

You will have met women in your practice who hold myths about their genitals and how they should perform sexually. One of the most common issues for women is the ‘Am I normal?’ question. Research on women’s masturbation is rare but demonstrates women’s uncertainty about their normality. It is likely that you don’t have good visual aids or teaching tools to explain the clitoris. To be clear, the models are not sex toys. They are not used in or on the body. The models are used for teaching and demonstration purposes or therapeutic conversations with clients. Possibly you have not been exposed to this knowledge in your training.

Anatomical Education is an Australian innovation to provide anatomically correct models and health literacy experiences collaborating with Professor O’Connell. Health professionals report good feedback when using this model with clients or students. Health professionals report that this is valuable scientific knowledge that can immediately be applied into clinical learning and practice. Sexual wellbeing is invaluable to everyone and those in relationships. Health literacy increases bodily autonomy.

Please visit our website if you wish to purchase some models and we have partnered with Family Planning Welfare Association NT to deliver a webinar in early August.

A/Professor Suzanne Belton
Anatomical Education

Deakin University Victorian Nurse and Midwife Health Program Survey

After 36 years the Canberra Sexual Health Clinic (CSHC), once known as the Gilmore Clinic and before that used as the Woden Valley Hospital Nurses’ Home in days when young nurses had to ‘live-in’, has closed its doors and relocated to brand-new premises – 500 metres down the road on Canberra Hospital grounds. 

The original Canberra Sexual Health Centre has had many happy moments with some wonderful staff and patients coming through the doors. However, in recent times space became a real issue as the number of patients continued to increase. The area where the old CSHC was located is being replaced by a new emergency, surgical and critical care health facility.  So, for CSHC it was onwards and upwards (literally from the ground floor to level 4).

We relocated on the weekend of 19-20^th June, had one day to unpack and back to business on Tuesday 22^nd June, an auspicious mid- winter day.  

The new clinic is amazing. It is fresh, modern and light.  There is space; we have increased our six clinic rooms to ten! 

The team is very excited with the move and our patients have told us they love the space, with the relaxed ambience of the waiting room and spacious clinic rooms. There is also some new artwork coming. What a privilege for clients and staff!

Please drop by and have a look if you’re in Canberra – (let us know first).

Anne Baynes
RN Level 2
Canberra Sexual Health Centre 

I remember it clearly, the phone call that changed it all, the call that shifted my focus from acute hospital-based nursing into the world of Sexual Health, the place I now call home, my forever career. 

In April 2017, mid-way through a busy shift on a Cardiology ward in Melbourne, I received a phone call from Rebecca the NUM at Sydney Sexual Health Centre (SSHC) thanking me for my interview and offering me a position of Endorsed Enrolled Nurse (EEN). After a swift move to Sydney in May 2017, I was filled with excitement and trepidation as I was to start my new career in the specialty of Sexual Health.
 
From the moment I walked in the door of SSHC, I was warmly welcomed into a clinical environment of passionate, driven and non-judgmental multidisciplinary staff and a world where education, training and professional development is highly encouraged and supported. As I like to call it, SSHC soon became my nursing utopia. Before too long, I was trained in asymptomatic screening of priority populations attending the rapid Xpress testing clinic.  Next I was working as the secondary nurse at a peer based outreach testing service for men who have sex with other men in Darlinghurst, Sydney.  
 
Working in these two services I began to appreciate the importance of innovative models of care designed in partnership with clients and the community.  Testing was not just the process of pathology collection but so much more, an opportunity to educate, and opportunity to provide health promotion and most importantly an opportunity to engage people in care, my greatest joy.  Once I had developed confidence in testing, I began working in the treatment clinic followed by phone triage and telephone results provision.  
 
This large variety of work was all possible thanks to the team work and the direct support and supervision I was provided by the RNs in the team.  I loved my work and I wanted to continue building my knowledge and my skills in the field. I sought opportunities to work alongside the research nurse and medical officers, performing data collection to assist with their quality improvement projects, and I attended internal and external sexual health training, but I kept wondering… where to next?! 

You see, I had reached the limit of my scope of practice as an EEN (something I was very proud of!) but by now I had developed such a commitment and passion for the sexual health specialty I began to wonder what life would be like as a Registered Nurse (RN). Then came the day, for me my tipping point, I was working in treatment clinic waiting for some medication to be prescribed by a doctor for my patient and watching nurses around me provide treatments under their own supply and administration protocols. I decided it was time, time to build on my EEN career and seek the autonomy, advanced scope of practice and career development opportunities I was craving.  I promptly applied for my Bachelor of Nursing via online learning at Charles Sturt University (CSU). The next morning, I found myself sitting with my NUM’s Rebecca and Kelly, planning what the future may look like, and how to combine working and study. Thanks to endless support of my team, I managed to complete this transition in two years.   
 
Although I knew I would return to sexual health one day I decided to complete my RN Graduate year in the acute setting in a busy Sydney Public Hospital, an amazing and at times grueling experience.  I was able to apply so many aspects of my previous knowledge from sexual health in the tertiary care setting – always considering STI’s and BBVs as differential diagnosis for certain presentations and thinking about including certain tests when people identified risk factors that were not always front of mind in the general medical setting.  I also gained experience during my study working in the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network.  
 
Once again, I was able to put my previously learnt skills in sexual health care in to practice, working with vulnerable priority populations.  I participated in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) testing for HIV and Hep C and gained experience in Hepatitis C management.  
 
I loved teaching and training colleagues who were unaware of certain aspects of STI’s, and Blood borne virus care and discussing stigma and easy ways to approach testing conversations. So you see, my passion for sexual health attention was never quashed only fueled. Then one day, a text message from an old colleague with a link to an advertised RN position at SSHC, was all it took for me to start planning my return home. 
 
On Sunday 21 February 2021, my RN Graduate year ended. On Monday 22 February 2021, saw my return to SSHC. My welcome home has been one to remember and I plan on remaining a permanent feature of SSHC for my nursing days to come. 
 
In the sexual health specialty, you are not a number, you are a family member of a team both at work but across networks who consistently inspire you and encourage you to strive to be the best nurse you can be. 
 
If Sexual Health is an area of nursing (for both registered and endorsed enrolled nursing) that sparks your curiosity, I highly recommend that you reach out to your local sexual health center and see if the world of sexual health is where you too belong.  
 
By Melissa Arnott
Registered Nurse
Sydney Sexual Health Centre

Scholarship Applications
Extended

As a result of COVID and these unprecedented times we have received fewer applications than anticipated.  The ASHHNA executive have therefore decided we will broaden our criteria for this year only to allow for some enhanced opportunities for nurses.
 
ASHM Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Conference
SPECIAL ONE TIME OFFER!

Want to attend this year but don’t want to jeopardise your chance to apply again next year? 

We are offering 10 nurses the chance to apply for a scholarship this to attend the conference without impacting your chance to apply again when things are back to ‘normal’

Our hope is to provide more opportunities to stay connected and continue learning… even if it is via zoom!
 
Are you currently undertaking Post-graduate study in a relevant field?

We are offering a one-time opportunity to apply for a scholarship of up to $1000 to be put towards a tertiary education subject (conditional on the subject matter of the course being relevant to the specialty field and nursing practice).

Carol Martin Professional Development Scholarship For Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV Nurses and Midwives
Sponsored by ViiV Healthcare.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE 11th AUGUST 2021

Nominate Now

Enter The ASHHNA Post Prize Now !

ASHHNA will be awarding a prize for the best nursing poster submitted to the 2021 Joint Australasian HIV&AIDS and Sexual Health Virtual Conference 6^th -9^th  September 2021.

If you would like your poster to be considered for a prize, please email a PDF copy of your poster to ashhnanurses@gmail.com by COB on Friday 13^th August. 

To be eligible for the poster prize, the primary author of the poster must be a nurse.  ALL nurses are welcome to submit their posters for judging regardless of ASHHNA membership so please share with your colleagues.

We have another exciting nursing panel discussion on holistic models of care scheduled at the conference this year, keep an eye on the website for the program announcements.

Our hope is to provide more opportunities to stay connected and continue learning… even if it is via zoom!
 
Are you currently undertaking Post-graduate study in a relevant field?

We are offering a one-time opportunity to apply for a scholarship of up to $1000 to be put towards a tertiary education subject (conditional on the subject matter of the course being relevant to the specialty field and nursing practice).

Carol Martin Professional Development Scholarship For Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV Nurses and Midwives
Sponsored by ViiV Healthcare.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE 11th AUGUST 2021

ASRHA Innovation Award
Nominations Open Now!

Recognising successful innovation and achieving peer-evaluated excellence within or on behalf of the Sexual and/or Reproductive Health community, that serves an unmet need or improves outcomes
 
Please send through your nominations to samantha.Ingram@ashm.org.au by completing the attached form by COB Friday 6 August.

Australasian Sexual Health
and HIV Nurses Association
Practice Standards
Third Edition 2021

The Australasian Sexual Health & HIV Nurses Practice Standards Third Edition
2021 is available to download below.

Calling All Nurses
Networking Opportunity

Would you like to join a nursing networking group for your patients who are Trans Gender Diverse Non-Binary?

To register your interest or for more information email Iffy or Maggie

Education

Hepatitis C Nursing
30 July 2021  |  9:00 am – 3:45 pm  |  Fraser Suites, Perth WA
Register Here

Hepatitis B Nursing: Advanced Management and Care
13-14 August  |  9:00am – 1:00pm (AWST)
Register here

The Albion Centre | Partnerships in Health 
Semester Two Courses
Register Here

Membership Payments
Troubleshooting

Some members are reporting receiving errors on the PayPal page when renewing memberships, but membership payment is going through! We are working to fix this issue, please check your statements to ensure the payment has gone through – it appears as though we are receiving them. Thank you!

Got something to share?

The ASHHNA Newsletter is distributed quarterly every year with some great content from our members across Australasia.

As we rely on our members, we really do encourage our members to reach out and submit content as much as possible so we can try bring as much wonderful information to you all so that we can share the latest developments, educational opportunities or anything related to sexual health you think our members might appreciate. 

Please send any contributions to:
Kendall Buckley or Kate Fisher 

Thanks, 
Kendall & Kate

ASHHNA acknowledges the traditional owners of this land the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the Traditional Custodians of this land that this newsletter was written. We acknowledge Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuous relationship to the land and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.